Punisher and Batman: Fear Themselves
by Poseidon Productions
Summary: Four men who represent fear will collide: The Dark Knight of Gotham, The World's Most Lethal Hero, The Scarred Enforcer and the Master of Fear. Who will walk out of New York City Alive.
1. Chapter 1

_**Punisher/Batman: Fear Themselves**_

_**Lupo Cavaleri Mansion, the Hamptons **_

_**New York City, 9PM**_

It was a celebration for what was considered impossible, an alliance with the Cavaleri crime family and the Zhen Shu Triad. For years the two groups had been enemies, trying to expand their organizations in each others turf. Violent actions were taken against each other, but a much bigger threat loomed in the darkness. Frank Castle, the man calling himself the Punisher had destroyed countless other crime families, drug cartels, human traffickers, gang bangers, bikers and others in his one man war on crime.

It was when Old Man Cavaleri died that his son Lupo took control of the family, he tried to reach out to the other organized crime families with a truce. The Russians lead by Sergei Kravinoff, the Irish mob led by Finn Cooley, the Harlem Mob led by John James Toomey and the Latino Gang led by Kasper Diaz all refused, thinking it a set up for a trap. Only the Zhen Shu Triad agree to the sit down. They discussed not only doing business but also partnering in the respective neighborhoods of Little Italy and Chinatown and protecting themselves from the Punisher.

The party was to seal the deal, the forty seven year old Lupo and fifty four year old Ran Zhen Shu were sitting at the table reserved for them and their wives. Lupo was wearing a black tuxedo with a blue undershirt and black tie. He had slicked back hair and light brown eyes. Ran had a black tuxedo as well but with a red undershirt and tie. Their wives were very beautiful woman, Alessa was a petite blonde with blue eyes and was wearing a blue gown. Jia was wearing a black business suit with shoes on.

Since this a pretty big shin dig, which Castle was known to crash, Lupo had his security doubled for this. No one was going to ruin this moment for the two men, or so they sought. Some of the men were outside the front doors, making sure that all visitors were properly screened. Most of them were soldiers from Lupo's mob, but they were assisted by some of Ran's ordinary men called "Red Polls." Most of Lupo's men were armed with Spectre M4 sub-machine guns, a sub gun were chambered for 9mm rounds in 'casket magazine' which held fifty rounds in them. The Chinese men were armed with FN P90 PDW's chambered for armor penetrating 5.7×28mm rounds.

As the guards stood around in the October night, A white limo approached the front. The limo seemed to surprise the head of security, an Italian soldier by the name of Marco. As he approached the limo, the window went down and a muffled burst of gun fire hit him straight in the head, his skull exploded in a shower of blood and brain matter. As he slump to the ground, the others tried to raise their guns but several gunmen came out of the darkness with silenced MP5K's and gunned them down as well.

Then the door opened and out stepped a man wearing a white suit with black undershirt and tie. His black hair was slick back and it went down past his neck. But it was his face that seemed terrifying, with stitched up network of scars and his left eyelid missing. He was the scarred assassin named Billy Russo, more popularly known as Jigsaw. Just after he stepped out, a woman also stepped up as well. She a Latina, with a black pony tail and dark brown hair. She was wearing a back body suit and a white lab coat. In her hand was a B&T MP9 that she used to kill Marco with.

"Good job, for a scientist that sits in a lab for most of your life, that's a hell of a headshot," Jigsaw said.

"Trust me, I've had more training than some dickhead wop dago," The female scientist said.

Jigsaw simply chuckled at this and turned around and motioned for his men to follow them. The men themselves were wearing black combat fatigues and gas masks. As they approach the doors, one man gave the scientist and Jigsaw gas masks. The men busted through the big double doors and went straight to work. The men that Jigsaw recruited were all criminals with military backgrounds, making his men more dangerous in gunfights with the exception being probably being the Russians.

The men crashed the party, killing anyone who tried to pull a gun on them, the rest of the guest simply hit the deck. When all of the security was dead the men stood guard and made sure no one made any sudden movements. Some of the others went up to Ran and Lupo and searched them. They pulled out a M1911A1 and QSZ-92 out of their shoulder holster.

"Who the fuck are you pricks, I demand to know who is pulling this shit!" Lupo bellowed.

"Yes, I would like to know to so I can torture the fuck before we kill them," Ran said with a threatening voice.

"It was me, you slant eyed motherfucker," Jigsaw said.

Jigsaw and his female friend walked into the area, the two men showed surprise at seeing him. Their wives however were disgusted, with Alessa actually throwing up at the sight of him.

"That's really cute bitch," Jigsaw said in sarcasm.

"Russo, what the fuck are you doing here," Lupo said, "I clearly did not invite your ripped up ass here tonight."

Jigsaw responded to the insult by pulling out a Taurus Model 44 revolver and fired it at Lupo. The heavy .44 Magnum hit the Mafia don right in the shoulder, the round making him fly backwards a bit and hit the ground. His wife shrieked in terror and went to her husband side.

"You got something to say Chinaman," Jigsaw said to Ran.

The leader and his wife said nothing.

"That's what I thought," Jigsaw said smugly.

He then turned around towards the guests.

"Ladies and gentleman, I like to announce that all of your shit belongs to me now. I know what your thinking right now, this guy must be fucking insane. Well you people are gonna be my example to your underlings if they don't do what the fuck I want," Jigsaw explained, then put his gas mask on.

After he fastened the mask on his face, the sky view glass was shattered and several gas grenades fell to the ground. The red gas filled the air and the guests started coughing violently. After fifteen seconds, all of the guest were screaming in pure terror, seeing their worst fears. Then from behind Jigsaw was a skinny man wearing tan clothing and tan hat. He had sharp facial features and had yellow eyes that seemed to emanated evil. Half the mans face was covered by a gas mask like device, it had been designed to look liked a stitched up mouth. The man standing there was Gotham City's master of fear Jonathan Crane, better known as Scarecrow.

As the guest continued to scream, Scarecrow seemed to enjoyed what was happening to them.

"That's it, feel the delightful fear," Scarecrow gleefully said, "Feel it, for it will be the last thing you ever feel."

Eventually the screaming started to die down, the men and women had died of massive heart attacks brought on by the fear gas.

"Too bad, I was enjoying the show," Scarecrow said, "But alas things never do go the way you want."

"Whatever Crane, we got what we came for," Jigsaw said, turning to his men, "Did you catch everything."

"Damn right I did," One of the men said tapping on a shoulder mounted camera.

"Good," Jigsaw said, "Now lets get the fuck outta here."

_**Several hours later, Cavaleri Mansion crime scene.**_

A black two door Crown Victorian pulled up to the scene of the massacre, when it stopped, two people stepped out of it. The first one was an African-American man with graying hair, he was wearing a gray suit, white undershirt, black tie, gray fedora and black shoes. In his holster was a Colt Detective Special revolver, the weapon he was issued when he first started. The man's name is Ozzy Clemons, a veteran of twenty five years in the NYPD, and lead detective of the current homicides. With him was his partner, a pretty Japanese American girl with black hair in a pony tail and fierce brown eyes. She was wearing a purple dress shirt, black dress pants, and shoes. In her shoulder holster was a Sig Sauer P226 Pistol. Reiko Watanbe has been a detective for only two years but Ozzy believed she had the potential to be great.

The two detectives approached the police tape, the showed their badges, the patrolmen allowed them to cross. They got close to the men who had been gunned down by the door.

"What do we have?" Ozzy asked a member of the Medical Examiners team.

"These men all died from multiple guns shots to either the head or the heart," the female examiner said, "The CSU guys said they found plenty of 9mm hollow point rounds around the area."

"Most likely sub-machine guns," Reiko said.

The two detectives then started to walk into the mansion.

"Do you know what I find weird about this," Reiko said.

"What?" Ozzy question.

"You'd think this would be the Organized Crime division's job," Reiko answered.

"Well their should be someone from OCD here," Ozzy said.

They walked into the dining area to see the others, their faces showing that they were experiencing extreme terror before they died. Reiko had to turn around, unwilling to look at them. Even Ozzy, who seen a lot as a homicides in his day was disturbed at what he'd seen. A tall white man approached them, he was wearing a black shirt, blue jeans and black boots. He had curly brown hair and pale gray eyes.

"Detectives Clemons and Watanbe, I'm Detective John Argyle of the OCD," the man introduced himself.

John and Ozzy shook hands, after getting a grip on her emotions, Reiko turned around and shook his hand as well.

"So, what the hell happened to these people," Reiko said.

"I've got a good idea who did this," John said, "If this is who I think it is, there's gonna be a huge shit storm coming our way."

"What are you going on about?" Ozzy question.

"The fact these people were scared to death, gas grenades were found, this is the trademark of the Scarecrow," John explained.

"You mean that one guy from Gotham City," Reiko said, "The one Batman keeps locking up."

"Yes, it seems that he's made his way here now," John said, "For what, that remains to be seen."

"Maybe he's helping out one of the crime families out for money," Ozzy said, "Or maybe he just wants to get away from Batman."

"Than he picked the work place to come," Reiko said, "At least Batman don't kill people, the Punisher will if he gets his hands on him."

Ozzy's face showed disgust when he heard that name. There were two types of cops, those who supported Castle and those who don't, and Ozzy wast the latter. He thought the Punisher should not get away with his crimes but there was something more personal. Years ago, some man poisoned a bunch of people with aspirin, which Ozzy was apart of the investigation. They managed to capture the man but because Castle contaminated the man's home, which was a crime scene, the man went free. Not a day later, the man was gunned down by the vigilante. Ever since then, Ozzy was one of the loudest critics of the Punisher.

"So, how are we going to play this out?" Ozzy asked.

"Trust me, when Commissioner Stacy finds out about this, the entire NYPD will be involved in this," John finished.

_**Meanwhile in Gotham City**_

Two men were running for their lives down a dirty alley. One was African-American while the other was Caucasian, both were wearing black jumpsuits and boots. They were two home invasion experts, who occasionally worked for Oswald Cobblepot, the man known simply as The Penguin. The duo tried to rob an apartment with two other men but the man tried to protect his stuff with a shotgun. He managed to blow one of their guys head off with it, however the man and his wife took about two dozen bullets from their sub-machine guns.

The remaining three hightailed it out of there and tried to get out of dodge. They weren't two blocks away when their van had two flat tires and they knew "He" was on their asses. They bailed and ran, and their friend, A Filipino man, decided to stay behind to distract the man chasing them. The duo heard him fire in the darkness with his dual Browing Hi Power's, by the time they entered the alley, a scream from their friend was heard.

Now it was just the two of them, and then they realized they had ran down a dead end alley.

"Oh shit!" The white man yelled, "The fuck are we going to do now!"

"Now we stand and fight, you pussy," The black man said.

The braver of the two held up a 9mm LF-57 sub-machine gun while the other held up his Vz. 68 Skorpion sub gun, also chambered in 9mm rounds. The wait for their opponent was nerve racking, the white man was so nervous that he thought he was going to have a heart attack. When a sudden noise rang out, the white man simply opened fire, lighting up the area the noise came from. His friend also opened up and the two emptied their weapons. As soon as they tried to reload, their hands were hit by something hard, forcing them to drop their weapons.

They clutched their injured hands and then a dark figure dropped in on them. The figure stood up and the two finally saw the man that Gotham's criminals feared the most. He was wearing a dark gray bodysuit with black trousers over the gray suit. On his chest was a black bat symbol and a yellow belt that contained his many gadgets.. He also had black boots, cape and a cowl that made the man look like a bat. He was The Batman, Gotham's Dark Knight.

"It's over, you've got nowhere to go," Batman said, his voice low and threatening, "Surrender."

As he started to walk towards the criminals, the black man reached behind him and pulled a .45ACP Colt Defender. He then grabbed his friend by the neck from behind. Pulling him close, the black man put the gun to the white man's head. Batman stopped dead in his tracks upon seeing this.

"Don't fucking come any closer you fucking freak!" the black man yelled, "You move an inch and this honky's brain will have some company."

Batman said nothing, just staring at the men.

"Now, I'm going to walk out of here, if you try..." The black criminal started.

Before he could say anything else, Batman moved faster than the hostage taker had seen anyone move. Before he could put pressure on the trigger, Batman grasped his hand with the gun with his left hand and punched him with the right. The blow knocked the man out instantly and his body hit the ground without making a sound. The white man was knocked down to the ground, but was too scared to move. Batman looked down on him, he then took out some handcuffs to secure him.

Several minutes later, the GCPD had shown up to round up the robbers, with Harvey Bullock supervising. The Dark Knight was about to leave when he saw his friend and Police Commissioner James Gordon and Batman knew something big happened. The Commissioner went into a dark alley and Batman soon swung down to meet him. When he dropped down, Gordon was smoking a cigar when Batman stood up from his kneeling position.

The Commissioner had an athletic build for a man in his mid fifties. He had gray hair and mustache, his wrinkles in face showed the wear and tear of police work. The man's eyes were pale blue and seemed to be tired. He was wearing a long sleeved white collared shirt and black trench coat, pants and shoes. In a shoulder holster was an S&W Model 27 chambered in .357 Magnum and a six inch barrel. James looked at him with respect.

"James," Batman said, his voice a little lighter than normal.

"Batman, got some news for you if you hadn't heard yet," Jim said, getting to business quickly.

"What is it, Jim?" Batman asked.

"It seems like Scarecrow has struck again, but not in Gotham," Jim answered, "In New York City."

The information that Jim had given Batman surprised him, but he didn't let it show.

"What do you have?" Batman asked.

"It came in just a few minutes ago from the NYPD," Jim answered, "Scarecrow gassed a celebration of a Mafia and Triad alliance for some reason."

The Dark Knight began to think to himself, searching for a good reason why Scarecrow would do what he do.

"Maybe one of the gangs wanted to move in on others in exchange for money to fund his research on fear gas," Batman said.

"So what are you going to do about this?" Jim questioned.

"I'm going after him," Batman answered, "If Crane thought I wouldn't pursue him, he's dead wrong."

"Good, I wish you luck then," Jim said and extended his hand out for a hand shake.

Batman gripped his hand tightly and shook it. After that, Batman took out his grappling gun and fired it into the air. When it hooked, he took off and left. The Cape Crusader flew around the city for a while before reaching the Batcar. He jumped in and took off as fast as he could towards Wayne Manor, were during the day he was billionaire Bruce Wayne. But underneath the manor was the Batcave, where Batman used as a base of operations to fight his crusade against crime.

When he made it back, his dutiful butler and surrogate father Alfred Pennyworth was waiting for him. He was bringing dinner for the crime fighter as usual, which tonight consisted of Alaskan Salmon with mashed potatoes. Alfred was a lean white male in his early seventies with short white hair. Wearing a three piece suit, he looked like what a butler should look like. The butler looked up at his charge, warmth in his gray eyes.

"I've got dinner made for you Master Bruce," Alfred said.

"Alfred, have you heard about the gassing of a crime party by Jonathan Crane?" Bruce asked, going straight to business.

"Yes sir, right now no one knows why Mr. Crane did what he did, but I suspect we'll be going to our Wayne Enterprises division in New York," Alfred answered.

"That's right Alfred, we're heading to New York soon," Batman said with a rare grin.

_**Three Nights Later**_

_**Queens, New York City**_

Three former members of the Zhen Shu Triad were hiding out in a safe house in Queens after the take over of the businesses by Jigsaw and his new partner. Most of their former brothers decided to join up with the scarred gangster along with most of Cavaleri men. There were hold outs like them and a few from the Italians but not much. Even the leader of the trio couldn't figure out how the maniacs managed to frighten two of the gangs to join up with them. After the gassing, Russo issued an ultimatum to the other gangs, join him or die. The others refused, saying they were willing to go to war with him.

The sudden noise of the front door got the Chinese gangsters attention. It seemed that Russo's new gang had found them, more than likely men from their family sent in to test their loyalty. The trio were not going to bow down to anyone, they were going down fighting. One thug picked up a Type 56-1, a Chinese version of the AKMS. And walked towards the noise. The other loaded up a Sterling Sub-Machine Gun and a Mini Uzi as well.

A flurry of shots from the Type 56 was heard then a loud boom from s shotgun, then the thud of a body hitting the ground. The silence was deafening, the Mini Uzi Triad came out with his gun blazing, firing 9mm rounds at 950 rounds a minute. A dark figure that was standing over their dead brother jumped for cover. The Mini Uzi man had to reload and his partner took up fire.

"YOUR GONNA DIE, YOU FUCKING TRAITOR!" The Mini Uzi wielding man screamed at their adversary.

He tried to see who was attacking them, but the person shot at him again. He managed to dodge the shot, a large chunk of plaster torn away from where his head was. His friend exited the room they were in and fired while walking backwards. When the sudden click of his weapon, the gangster knew he was dead. The figure turned the corner and fired, the thugs head exploded in a mess of blood, brains and bone. As his dead body slump to the ground, the other thug again fired his Mini Uzi, but the figure yet again retreated to cover.

Despite his earlier statement that he would go down fighting, the thug dropped his Mini Uzi and ran away. Whoever this person was, they were good. He opened the back door and bound into the back yard, before he managed to get to the fence, he heard a shot, felt pain the back of his leg and tumbled to the ground. He turned to clutch his wound only to see his attacker.

He thought he would see a Chinese man, but saw a Caucasian man with short black hair and five o'clock shadow. His blue eyes were ice cold, like looking into a dead man eye's. He had on black military fatigues, boots, tactical vest and fingerless gloves. The only thing that wasn't black on him was a white skull on his chest. Slung on his back was a Remington 870 Modular Combat Shotgun and in his right hand was a M9A1 pistol with a laser sight underneath it. The thug now knew who he was face, Frank Castle, the man the criminals knew as The Punisher.

The vigilante grabbed the wounded Chinese man and threw him on the fence, a steel grip on his throat.

"Russo's new partner, who is he?" Frank questioned, his voice was low and icy.

"Thought you would know...with all your snitches...and pig friends," The Chinese man answered through the pain.

"For some reason, everything is all hush hush," Frank said, "Even my police contacts are not saying anything right now."

"It's some costumed freak from Gotham City," the thug said, "Goes by the name Scarecrow, a guy who's fought that Batman."

Frank had heard of the man, but was not totally up to speed on the subject at hand. He would need to lean on one of his police contacts for some intel.

"Seems like your outta luck, I hear the Gotham criminals eat guys like you for dinner," The thug said with a chuckle, "Your fucked."

The man started to laugh but was cut off when a 9×19mm NATO round went straight through his eye and into his brain. Frank simply turned around and left the area. He was now dead set on stopping Jigsaw and Scarecrow's hostile take over of the Big Apple. First he needed intel on Scarecrow and then needed to come up with an attack plan. No doubt that the two planned on hitting those who refused to join their cause. Frank got into his customized Ford Mustang and left for his hide out.

_**A/N:**_

_**A welcome to my new crossover.**_

_**Just to mention is that this story is not canon to either universe of DC or Marvel or my War Chronicles story. Now on to some other thing, to start off with, I would say this is more like PunisherMAX when talking about Punisher, meaning no superhero's or supervillians. Batman on the other hand would be like regular DC universe but you won't be hearing about people like Superman or Wonder Woman.**_

_**You might have recognized some names from the MAX, Finn Cooley and John James Toomey are from Garth Ennis's MAX Run. Sergei Kravinoff is of course Kraven the Hunter from the 616 but in this story he's a former member of the Russian Spetsnaz turned gangster rather than an aristocratic hunter. The other gang lords are original characters, Kasper Diaz also appears in my "Shadow Soldier" Series, but as a U.S. Marshall rather than a criminal. Ozzy Clemons originally came from Greg Rucka's Punisher run. **_

_**I know some writers like to make their characters based of real actors or actress but I prefer voice actors like if my story was a video game or animated movie so here are my picks for the four principal characters:**_

_**Kevin Conroy as Batman/Bruce Wayne- Only natural to have the guy who voiced Batman in the Animated series and several other projects like the Arkham Games.**_

_**Brian Bloom as Punisher/Frank Castle- He dose a lot of voice work like Kane from Kane & Lynch, Captain America in Avengers: EMH and several characters in the Mass Effect series. I base Frank voice on a character Bloom voiced in Mass Effect 3 during the mission Aria: Blue Sons, he's the human character named Darner Vosque.**_

_**John DiMaggio as Jigsaw/Billy Russo- Known as the voice of Marcus Fenix in the Gears of War Series, the Joker in Batman: Under the Red Hood and Bender from Futurerama.**_

_**Robert Englund as Scarecrow/Johnathan Crane- Best known as Freddy Kruger from the orginial movie franchise and voiced the Vulture in Spectacluar Spider-Man.**_

_**I do not own Punisher or Batman. They owned by Marvel and DC comics respectivly.**_


	2. Chapter 2

_**Chapter 2**_

_**Abandon Warehouse, New Jersey side of the Hudson river.**_

21:15 hours

Jigsaw was enjoying a nice fat Cuban cigar as he sat in what was his office. Currently savoring the victory he had secured against the Italians and Chinese, he all too well that it wasn't going to last. Scarecrow had made it clear that Batman would probably show up and try to wreck their attempted take over of the Big Apple. Jigsaw had heard about the big bad bat, a really scary man who is known to go in to area filled with mooks with automatic firearms with non-lethal gadgets and his fists and walk out without being touch. Even for a do gooder son of bitch like that, Jigsaw could respect that.

It was Frank Castle that worried the hell out of Russo, Batman will not kill any of them. Castle on the other hand, he would nuke them if he had the chance to do it. Him and Frank had a legendary rivalry, starting back over ten years ago. At that time Russo was a hitman and enforcer for the Costa crime family, they had ordered him to take care of Castle. The Costa had shot the Castle family during a shootout with some Mexican pricks by mistake and killed them, while they didn't fear being arrested due to connections to the NYPD, they feared he might go to the media to drum up support from the public and feds.

They sent him and some Costa associates to whack the man, but it turned into a bloodbath. Those stupid bastards Frank and Bruno Costa forget to mention he was a Marine with special forces training. He wiped the floor with them, ending with Russo going through a mirror he had been thrown through as well as a window due to a grenade. All that, plus a fall from a second story window is what gave Russo his face that he had. Ever since then Jigsaw tried his best to make sure he paid Frank back for what he did, plus interest.

However none of it seemed to work, Russo tried time and again to kill the bastard but he always failed. Then one day it hit him, he needed better trained men to fight the Punisher. Aside from some of the Russians, who had former soldiers in their ranks, most of the other criminals had little to no training in combat. It was this reason that Frank could wipe dozens of men out at any given time. Russo needed real soldiers to fight, and he went out and did just that.

Russo went out and recruited men from places like Central and South America, East Europe, Africa and Asia. He told them he could give them riches beyond belief and they joined. He also came back to America and recruited former soldiers who were given dishonorable discharges and couldn't get jobs in the PMC sector. Then he needed to make money to get what he needed: paying his men, weapons and other things. One day while helping out the Vargas Drug Cartel in Bolivia, he was approach by a chemist by the name of Olivia Valentina. She claimed she had been watching them for a while and had a client who could not only help him finial kill the Punisher but take over New York City.

At first, Russo was skeptical about that, even contemplating shooting her. However his interest was peeked and agreed to meet her employer. They traveled to Mexico City and that's when he meet Dr. Jonathan Ichabod Crane, Gotham's infamous Scarecrow. He wanted to cut a deal with him, Scarecrow would allow Jigsaw to use his fear gas to fight the other gangs in NYC in exchange for thirty percent of the revenue that the conquered gangs so he could fund his research. Jigsaw liked that idea but knew of Scarecrow being a two faced bastard who was known for betraying his allies. When he called him out on that, Crane casually stated that he would be in complete control of security with the exception of a small detail of bodyguards. Jigsaw told him that if he wanted this deal, some of his men had to be in his detail so he could not plan on screwing him over. Crane was somewhat annoyed by this but he agreed.

After some careful planning, they hit the Cavaleri family and Triads, convinced most of their men to join and take over their businesses.

Jigsaw decided to go check on the good doctor and his assistant. He grabbed his Taurus Model 44 and put it into his shoulder holster and exited his office, two of his bodyguards armed with MP5K's flanked him the moment he exited. The warehouse was buzzing with activity, guns were either being prepped for war or for sale, drugs being prepared and other illegal things. The trio then approached the area that designated as Scarecrow's lab. Their were two of Scarecrow's guards standing close to the door, holding High Standard K-1200 Riot Pump Shotguns.

Once Jigsaw neared them, the guards opened the door for him and the scarred mobster entered. The area would look like a high class science laboratory but the warehouse setting screwed that up. Scarecrow and his assistant Valentina, the woman with Jigsaw during the raid on the party, were working feverishly to improve on the doctor's gas. When they had arrived, Crane mentioned that he was on the brink of creating a stronger, faster acting gas.

"Whats the news Scarecrow?" Jigsaw asked.

Scarecrow didn't answer him, continuing his work. Valentina however turned around and looked at Jigsaw.

"We're about to test our prototype Mk. 4 gas as we speak Mr. Russo," Valentina answered.

Jigsaw simply nodded to her. In the short time he knew them, Jigsaw knew that Scarecrow never called any of his gas by anything but "Fear Gas" or "His Work." Valentina had worked for the military before joining Scarecrow, so Jigsaw assumed she used military jargon in her work. A door opened up at the far side of the room and in stepped two of Jigsaw's men who were dragging in a woman with a burlap sack over her head. They brought her up to the trio and made her get on her knees, then they took off the sack.

The woman was beautiful, with long silky blonde hair and light blue eyes. She was wearing a blue halter top, blue jeans and black high heels. Jigsaw thought she was a girl from the richer sides of town or a prostitute. She was clearly scare out of her mind but it was a quite scared. She had a gag around her mouth and Jigsaw's boy removed it.

"Please...don't kill me," The woman squeaked out in fear, tears in her eyes.

Scarecrow loaded up his personal gas launcher on his arm with the prototype gas and then approached the woman, who flinched at the sight of his yellow eyes. The two thugs then moved away from the two and Scarecrow bent down, grabbed the girl by the chin, and examined her for awhile. The whole time the girl feared for her life in agonizing silence.

"You remind me of Sherry Squires," Scarecrow said in a low and threatening tone, invoking the name of the cheerleader who rejected him in high school, set him up for a cruel prank by a bully and his first murder.

Without saying anything else, Scarecrow shot his hands out and sprayed the girl in the face with his fear gas. The woman started to cough at first but after about ten seconds, she began to scream hysterically. She writhed on the ground as she screamed. Yet again the twisted doctor enjoyed what he was seeing.

"Yes, give into it, allow the fear to invade your mind," Scarecrow said gleefully, "Let it melt into your soul."

The girl began fade away, her heart overloading and she gasped for air. She then went stiff as a board and let out a one last breath before dying. Scarecrow started to caress the body, tenderly touching it. Jigsaw hoped this skinny freak wasn't going to have sex with the corpse in front of them. He looked over to Valentina.

"The results?"

"Worked better than expected, the effects start five seconds faster," Valentina said, "She also died quicker."

Jigsaw grinned at this, the two twisted doctors had delivered.

"Crane," Jigsaw said to him.

Scarecrow didn't answer, still fixated on the woman.

"SCARECROW!" Jigsaw yelled.

Again no answer. Jigsaw took out his Taurus Model 44 and fired a round into the air. This made Scarecrow flinch and he finally looked over at him. Jigsaw re-holstered his weapon.

"How fast can you make those gas grenades for me?" Jigsaw asked, "I have plans to hit Finn Cooley and his micks soon."

Scarecrow realized he zoned out on the girl he had just used as a guinea pig. He collected himself and turned to his partner.

"Three days," Scarecrow answered.

"Very good," Jigsaw said with a grin, "Should I leave the girl here for you?"

"No, dispose of her," Scarecrow answered briskly.

"You heard him boys, get rid of her," Jigsaw said to the two men who brought her to the warehouse. "Take her to that incinerator our Chinese buddies use to dispose of bodies."

_**Meanwhile, Abandoned Subway Station, Brooklyn**_

OCD Detective John Argyle had walked to the station after getting a text from a friend of his. He wished it was in a better place than this, known African and skin head gangs roamed this part of town. John had his department issue 9mm Smith & Wesson Model 5946 pistol at the ready in a shoulder holster. He entered the underground subway and sat down by the tracks waiting for his friend.

After waiting for fifteen minutes, John heard foot steps behind him. He turned his head and saw his friend, Frank Castle. He was wearing his black trench coat to concealed his recognizable death skull. He sat down beside the OCD detective. The two had met several years ago when Argyle went undercover in Finn Cooley's Irish mob. Somehow Cooley managed to deduce his identity as a cop and tried to have him killed, but Frank saved him from a bullet to the head and his body dumped in the Hudson River. Since then John has been giving him intel once and a while.

"Frank," John acknowledged him.

"Detective Argyle," Frank said simply.

John reached into his coat and got the files he managed to copy about the new player in town. Frank grabbed it and opened up, the first thing he saw was a picture of a lankly man with long blond hair and evil looking eyes.

"Dr. Jonathan Crane, former employee of Arkham Asylum who specialized in phobia's and such. Got caught experimenting on his patience's with his fear gas, managed to escape then took on the moniker of Scarecrow," John explained to Frank.

"Can he fight, or is he just a psycho lab rat who has others do his fighting," Frank said coldly.

"All I know is that he's gone up against Batman but always managed to lose," John stated, "But he's a completely ruthless prick, He once gassed an entire school bus full of children just to show people he meant business."

Frank simply shook his head at what he heard, but deep down his blood boiled. Frank hated people who used children to get their point across.

"Also, we gotta call from the Police Commissioner from Gotham City saying that Batman will likely show up," John said to Frank, "Expect a fight from him, heard he's a fucking bad ass."

"I keep a look out for him," Frank said simply, "Thanks for the info."

Frank simply got up and started to leave.

"Hey Frank, you know who Russo and Crane will hit next?" John asked.

"Fin Cooley, he supplies most of the other gangs with guns and explosives," Frank said without turning around or stopping, "He's also the weakest in terms of man power."

Frank left his police contact, stepping out into the city once again. As he walked to his Brooklyn hideout, he heard shouting, mostly racial slurs. Frank hurried to the area, seeing five bald headed white men violently kicking a black man down. The men are part of the Aryan Army, a Neo Nazi gang that been on Castle's radar for a while. Besides their usual racially motivated attacks and kills, they were also mid level meth and heroin dealers as well. The black man who they were beating was bloody and his face was swelling up.

Frank recognized one of them, Marcus Lee Forrest, the leader of the Aryan Army in Brooklyn. He was noticeable due to the large swastika on the back of his head, which was reserved for leaders only. He was wearing a plaid shirt, white wife beater, blue jeans and black combat boots.

"Filthy fucking nigger, thought you could disrespect us and get away with it!" Marcus yelled at him, "Well now your gonna fuckin die jungle bunny, now bite that curb!"

Frank sprung into action, he reached in his coat and pulled out a nickle plated Desert Eagle with black grips. The monster of a pistol was chambered with the .50 Action Express, a devastating round that ruin anything it hit. The Eagle also had a laser sight attached to the underslung rail. Frank aimed at Forrest's neck, knowing the recoil was heavy and he'd hit the head if he aimed at the neck. Frank put in the necessary pressure on the trigger.

The pistol roared as the heavy rounds rocketed towards the racist's head. None of his buddies were ready when Forrest's head exploded, covering them in blood and brains. They seemed too shocked to move as Frank fired again, this time taking a skin head in the neck. Blood gushed out of his neck, the man choking on his blood. Seeing that must of stirred them, a man tried to pull out a Walther PPK before he was shot in the heart. The man died damn near instantly.

That man's death gave another one the time to pull out a HK P7 pistol and fire three rounds at the direction the bullets that killed his Aryan brothers. None of the bullets even touched Frank, the man's wild panic managing to screw up his aim. The man's head also exploded from the Punisher's hand canon, his body dropped like a sack of rocks. The last man, who had no weapon on him, tried to run away, and received a bullet in the back for his trouble.

That was it, in less than fifteen seconds, Frank had wiped out five Neo-Nazis like it was nothing. After Frank dealt with Russo and Crane, he would deal with the rest of the Nazi pricks. The sound of sirens were coming, the injured black man would be safe now. Frank turned into a dark alley way and disappeared.

_**One Hour Later, Chinatown, Manhattan.**_

A violent shootout between two sets of Zhen Shu triads, on one side were defectors to Jigsaw's side while the other were one of the last loyalists groups. The two sides were firing at each other with automatic weapons. The defectors were armed with M16A1 rifles that Jigsaw had provided while the loyalist had MAC-11's and pistols. The loyalist were severely out gunned and they knew it, but they were willing to die for their true leader. One man stepped out and fired his entire clip into the general direction of the defectors, but didn't hit anything. With no way he could reload, the loyalist knew he was dead, and a hail of bullets cutting through him confirmed this.

Just as the defectors were advancing on their former brothers to finish them off, several bat shape objects struck their weapons, making them drop from their hands. The defectors looked up to see a dark mass coming straight towards them, like a living shadow ready to engulf them. The lead man took two boots the face, sending the man flying backwards and hitting the ground knocked out. With the grace of a cat, the shadow landed on his feet and advanced on his targets. The loyalist themselves just stared on in disbelief as the shadow fought their traitors with bare hands.

One defector tried to pull a M92F out of his waistband before taking a spinning back fist to the jaw, knocking him out. The man behind the shadow was too slow to do anything as he got a round house kick to the temple. A few shots were heard from the shadow's side made him look over, a defector with a CZ75 managed to fire off a few rounds. With inhuman speed, the shadow closed the gap, disarmed the man, grab him and throw him against the wall of a building.

With most of the defectors defeated, the loyalist were stunned. The shadow then looked at him and moved closer to them, finally revealing himself. The cowl, the cape and his signature bat symbol identified him, the Batman. Without saying a word, the loyalist dropped their weapons and surrendered, knowing they couldn't beat the Cape Crusader. For the next few minutes, Batman cuffed all the criminals. Sirens sliced the air as Batman finished up, marking that his time was up. Batman knew that the NYPD would not assist him in his hunt for Crane and his new partner. As he reached for his grappling gun, a police cruiser came into view. Their bright lights shone on Batman, giving the two uniformed cops a good look at the Dark Knight.

Firing his grappling gun, the hook flew out of it and hooked on a building. The cops got out of their car and tried to raise their Glock 17 pistols but Batman rocketed up into the sky as his grappling gun pulled him up. The cops were amazed to see what just happened, then came back to reality and began to cordon off the crime scene.

Meanwhile up in the roof tops, Batman was running on top of them. He needed to be at a meeting with a contact of his. As he approached a ledge, he jumped of and used his cape to safely glide to the other roof. After a half an hour of doing this, he came to his destination. On the top of an apartment building was Detective Reiko Watanbe, who was waiting for the Dark Knight, wearing a red collared shirt, blue jeans and black shoes. The NYPD detective smiled at seeing her friend, who saved her years ago. Reiko originally came from Gotham, living in the city's Japanese quarter called Little Kyoto. When she was a collage student at Gotham University for criminal law, she was attacked by some thugs of the Arakawa Yakuza. Her father, Hiro Watanbe was a GCPD Homicide detective who was investigating a murder perpetrated by one of their members.

They wanted to beat and rape her to intimidate her father, however Batman saved her from them. She thank him everyday for saving her from the thugs that tried to hurt her. Since then, Reiko wanted to be a cop but her father didn't want her serving in Gotham City. He had friends who transferred to the NYPD and got her put into the NYPD police academy. Everything after that was history.

"Detective Watanbe, good to see you again," Batman said in the best way he could while maintaining his cold and detached manner.

"Been a long time Batman," Reiko said with a smile.

"Did you tell anybody about our meeting?" Batman question.

"Hell no, the commissioner will most likely want you arrested and will do the same thing to me if he found out I'm helping you," Reiko answered, "Plus my partner hates vigilantes."

Reiko walked over to Batman and handed him some files.

"Here's everything on William Russo," The detective said.

Batman opened the file to see the scarred enforcer. While Batman could have gotten the information himself, he didn't have any computer links to the NYPD. In the time he could get those links, Russo and Crane could have caused more chaos. That's why he reached out to Reiko, she could get the info he needed.

"William Russo aka Billy "The Beaut" Russo was an enforcer for the Costa Crime Family before his face met a mirror, grenade and a window. Was in the operating table for over twenty hours getting all that shit out of his face. So much of his face was gone they had to graft skin on, made it look like a jigsaw puzzle. After that he called himself Jigsaw and has terrorized people since," Reiko explained.

Their was a short silence between them, Batman continued to read the info he was given.

"You know how he got that way?" Reiko asked

"Frank Castle," Batman answered bluntly.

"So you know him," Reiko said.

"By reputation," Batman said "I know that if Jigsaw is involved in something, the Punisher is also there."

"But since your here, we got a chance to finally stop him as well," Reiko said with some optimism.

"If it comes down to that, but my priority is Scarecrow and Jigsaw," Batman said.

"Well I hope you two meet, he'll finally meet someone that skills surpass his," Reiko said.

"One must not underestimate their opponent, Frank might not have my skills but he's a highly trained special forces Marine and capable of holding his own, even against me," Batman said to Reiko.

Reiko turned her back to Batman and thought about what the Cape Crusader said. He was right, the NYPD, FBI, ATF and even the CIA underestimated Frank. They thought of him as just some grunt with a ton of weapons and an axe to grind. Truth is that Frank was trained by the best units in the US Military. Reiko turned around but noticed that Batman had disappeared without making a sound. She knew Batman was famous for this, she simply smiled and left.


End file.
